The present invention relates in general to the computer field, and in particular, to a new category of portable computer that combines the advantages of a laptop computer and a tablet.
Tablet computers have grown in popularity because of their portability and ease of touchscreen input. However, some shortcomings and obstacles remain which limit the practical application of a tablet to only some applications such as checking email or playing simple games. More elaborate applications still require a real computer, such as a laptop computer. There are several reasons for that limitation, such as a) the lack of a keyboard for faster, more reliable and more convenient input than a touchscreen, b) generally tablets are underpowered for real computer work which usually requires more storage capacity, more memory, more peripheral devices, faster processors, more battery capacity and generally more computer resources than current tablets normally provide.
As shown in FIG. 1, a typical prior art tablet computer 10 includes a computer housing 11 and a touchscreen 12 which is used for visual output as well as for user input. Inside the housing 11 and underneath the touchscreen panel 12 there are the internal components of the tablet computer (not shown in FIG. 1), such as the motherboard, the data storage device, the battery and others.
FIG. 2 shows a cross-section of the tablet computer.
FIG. 2A shows a typical state of the art laptop computer with a base 212 and a display 213. This type of computers typically provides enough power for real computer work, but until now they generally lack the user-friendliness of a laptop computer. Some attempts have been made to equip this type of laptops with a touchscreen to provide tablet-like user-friendliness, but some obstacles have been encountered which have prevented the adoption by the users. One of those obstacles has been the fact that when a laptop as the one in FIG. 2A is equipped with a touchscreen as part of its display unit 213, said display unit tends to move and oscillate when the user touches the touchscreen to enter some input, which is uncomfortable because the image is moving and vibrating in front of the user. Even with a stronger and tighter hinge it is difficult to avoid this problem because of the distance between the hinge and the points of touch. A moving, slightly oscillating display can make a user dizzy or frustrated, making touchscreen usage impractical for such type of computer.